A Connecticut bioscience company said it’s developing an Ebola vaccine and it plans to have samples ready for testing by the end of this year.
Protein Sciences has a novel way of making vaccines. It doesn’t involve growing them inside chicken eggs like conventional vaccines, and it doesn’t involve working with the live virus, making it quicker and cleaner than older methods.
The company said it was tapped by the National Institutes of Health in June to restart an old project working on Ebola.
CEO Manon Cox said she hopes trials in monkeys can begin in December to see how well the vaccine works, but she said it would be safe to administer to anyone who needs to travel to areas where the Ebola emergency is at its height. "Our vaccine is based on a protein, and a protein doesn’t harm you," she told a news conference. "If we sent soldiers and doctors and medical personnel to Africa and to affected areas, I think it would be really important to give them that protein as a precaution, so that they at least have some protection against the disease."
The Ebola research is based on a method that Protein Sciences uses to make a flu vaccine that’s already on the market.
If the Ebola medicine proves effective, Protein Sciences could get further funding from NIH for further development.
Other companies are also working towards an Ebola vaccine. A drug made by GlaxoSmithKline is currently undergoing human clinical trials.
